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Friday, February 14, 2014

On this day of love, my quest to understand this
emotion only gets stronger (the assumption being, I haven’t quite understood it
completely!). Just what is this love that makes mountains move? Well, if this
seems a trifle clichéd and juvenile (isn’t the god of love a child?), then so
be it; let me indulge in

some juvenile romantic quest, if I may!

It is said, that
what is in the epic Mahabharata, is everywhere and what isn’t in it, just
doesn’t exist. If that be so, my quest to understand love ought to take me just
there, where both love and hatred were of epic proportions. But today is a day
of love, so we won’t refer to hatred. Let love paint it all in red (literally
as we shall soon see)!

While love is
capable of many things, I am quite impressed by its ability to transform as well as avenge.

Let me give you
a beautiful example of love transforming
from the epic Mahabharata. According to this, the King of Mandukya’s daughter,
Sushobhana, was not willing to get married, as she felt that marriage was like
putting a free bird in a cage. She wanted to be free and spend her life
philandering away to glory. Sushobhana would mask her identity, and get close
to the man of her choice and live with him till she got tired of him, and left
under some pretext, which she would have worked to her advantage before getting
into the relationship. The men would be under a vow never to speak about it and
thus the matter was never known to anybody, except her maid, Subinita and the
King himself. Subinita on her part had tried her best to stop the princess from
such philandering, but Sushobhana never yielded to her requests and used her
beauty and charm as a means to live a life of her choice.

Once, Sushobhana
met the handsome King Parikshit of the Ikshvaku dynasty. Sushobhana was
impressed by his looks and lured him into a relationship. Soon Parikshit took
the unknown lady to his palace and the two enjoyed themselves. A time came when
Parikshit wanted to marry her, but Sushobhana true to her nature saw that as an
entrapment. At the beginning of the relationship, she had made Parikshit take a
vow that he would never take her near a water-body. Over a period of time,
Parikshit had forgotten about it. When Sushobhana came to know about the
wedding, in a moment of Parikshit’s weakness, made him take her close to a lake
and on reaching the lake, she reminded him of his vow and her imminent
departure.

When a shocked
Parikshit wanted to know about the cause of the departure, she feigned a curse.
At that moment Parikshit decided to hold her in a tight embrace, daring the
curse to take effect. It was at that moment, that Sushobhana felt that this man
was different, and something inside her changed, but she could not accept that
this was love. She managed to escape from there. While she was leaving, Parikshit
noticed a spy and from his dressing, realised that he was from the Mandukya
kingdom. He took his army to the doors of Mandukya and asked them to hand over
Sushobhana who according to him had been ‘kidnapped’ by them. The King met
Parikshit and told him the whole story of his wayward daughter.

When Sushobhana
came to know about it, she was depressed that her truth was out in the open and
the shame would be too much for her or her father. At that moment she decided
to commit suicide. Just when she was about to gulp down the cup of poison, her
maid Subinita comes to her to inform her that Parikshit was waiting for her in
his tent. Sushobhana was surprised to know that the prince wanted to accept him
even after he knew everything? Why would any man want a woman whose ways were
wanton and who wilfully led a life of the unspeakable? Subinita replied “For
love”.

It was for the
first time, Sushobhana realised the power of love and inside her grew the
desire to belong. For the first time she wanted to fly and be caged in the arms
of Parikshit. To the joy of everybody, love had transformed a wayward
philandering woman.

The same epic
also tells us about how love makes one avenge
for the love of one’s life. The Mahabharata has always referred to the love of
Draupadi for Arjun. What has been overlooked is the love of Bhima for Draupadi.
Though Bhima was married to Hidimba, the demoness before Draupadi, it was
Draupadi that he deeply loved and never missed an opportunity to express the
same. An obvious example of it is his fetching of the Saugandhika flower after a great fight with a demon. However, a
more pertinent example of coming to her aid was that of saving her from Keechak
during the year of exile.

The thirteenth
year of exile was in a disguise and the Pandavs were at the court of Virata.
When Keechak, the brother of the Queen of Virata tried to molest Draupadi who
was serving the queen at that moment, Draupadi turned only to Bhima to save
him. At the risk of their disguise being recognised, Bhima killed Keechak as he
could never bear to see anybody insult her, even though Yudhishtir kept quiet
as the Kings assistant.

Another example
was during the disrobing of Draupadi in the court of Dhritarashtra. It was only
Bhima who reacted while the others simply expressed their inability to do
anything. It was Bhima who had vowed that he would break the thigh of Duryodhan
for asking Draupadi to sit on his lap and would drink the blood of Dushashan
for touching Draupadi. True to his words, he killed Duryadhan by fatally striking
him on his thigh. Prior to that he ripped open the bowels of Dushashan and with
the blood he washed Draupadi’s hair before binding it which was left loose
since the day of the disrobing.

A scene depicting the above at Hampi

While this might
seem gory, nonetheless it is an expression of Bhima’s love and affection for
Draupadi, who too knew that Bhima was the only one she could turn to in times
of distress. Many would term this to be one sided love, but then who cares
about sides, when love has been expressed to avenge the insult for the person
one loves?

Friday, February 7, 2014

Yesterday
we read about the cause of Draupadi’s marriage to the Pandavs. The main cause
of it seemed to be a casual remark by Kunti. Let us understand this in slight
detail.

Pandavas with Draupadi Deogarh, Dasavatar temple

After
Arjun won Draupadi in the swayamvar,
the Pandavs returned to their hut with Draupadi (the Pandavs and Kunti were in disguise
and hiding after the Lakshagraha
episode). When they arrived, Kunti was doing something and had her back towards
them. On arriving one of them is supposed to have said, “Look mother what we
have got” (which should have been, ‘who’ and not ‘what’, but let’s overlook
this rather convenient slip-of-tongue). Without turning, Kunti is supposed to
have said, “Please share it amongst the five of you” and the rest is history,
of epic proportions!

Was
this such an innocent statement made by Kunti? Didn’t she not know that the
Pandavs had gone to Panchal to attend the swayamvar
of the princess of Panchal, Draupadi? Panchal and Drupad were known to the Pandavs
very well from the past events, so statement “Look….” couldn’t have been a
shareable object. Also the Pandavs were not children that everything needed to
be shared! So was this a deliberate act?

Draupadi
was born out of the flames of a yagna,
and thus also called ‘Yagnaseni’. She
was dark (Krishnee) and beautiful.
She was fiery and strong. Some versions say that the jealousy towards Arjun by
the other brothers was visible to the mother and this could have been the only
way to keep them bound. Kunti was the glue that bound the bothers, but she also
knew that beyond a point (and age), she would be ineffective. Besides youth
needed something else to bind!

On
realizing what she had done, she could have undone the same, but by then
Yudhishtir had announced that Kunti’s words were sacrosanct and all five of
them would marry Draupadi! When Drupad and Dhrishtidyumna raised objections,
Yudhishtir is supposed to have given some examples of polyandry in knowledge
then.

Yudhishtir
gives the examples of Jatila who was supposed to have married seven sages. Then
the example of Marisha marrying the Prachetas was cited. Further, the marriage
of the Maruts with Rodasi was cited. But these were all divine and not mortals,
said Drupad. It was then that Sage Vyasya was brought in to ‘support’ Yudhishtir’s
opinion.

Vyasa telling the the tale to Drupad

The
idea of polyandry was pushed through even when it was not a norm and this we
see later when Draupadi was referred to as a prostitute by many and in public. So
was this decision of marrying Draupadi to the five brothers a ploy by Kunti to
ensure that the five brothers remain together in times of trials? Was she aware
of the weaknesses of her sons and how much they needed a feminine force to keep
them united, the way she was doing till then?

If
the idea of polyandry was out of place, then why was it not objected to by
Draupadi’s father and brother? Draupadi was born out of fire which was
conducted to beget Drupad a son who could kill his enemy Dronacharya. Along
with a son, Drupad got a daughter too, so she was a bonus. These were not
natural born children, but children who were ‘created’ for a cause, modern day
robots, if I may add! Drupad was more concerned about his son achieving his
objective and possibly Draupadi getting married to the heirs of Hastinapur
could just be an added advantage or immaterial. Who knows?

In
short, except Draupadi, it was a win-win for all. Kunti was happy, the Pandavs
were ecstatic and the father and brother couldn’t care much. And Draupadi? Well
she was born out of fire and lived a life of hell! She had five husbands but
none were hers. All husbands had exclusive wives separately, but she didn’t
have a single husband of her own. As Saonli Mitra, the eminent Bengali theater
actress calls Draupadi in one of her plays – nathboti anathbot – the one with husbands, but yet unprotected.

Polyandry
has been effectively used in this epic. Nalayani (Draupadi in her previous
birth) learns about Shiva granting her a boon of five husbands in her next life,
wonders if she would not be seen as a fallen woman. An elaborate conversation
takes place where Nalayani explains that as per the norms a man can have many
wives, but a woman only one. She can take another husband to beget children
after her first husband has consented to it (niyoga). If she takes a third husband, then she has to atone for
the same as per the societal norms. A fourth husband would imply that she is a
fallen woman and a fifth meant she was a prostitute. Shiva is supposed to have
said, that in the days of yore, this was not unheard of and that it was boon
from him, and so no sin would be levied on her. Satisfied, Nalayani goes her
way to her next birth and endures her status of being nathboti anathbot.

Polyandry
was not in vogue during the times of Mahabharata and thus some sharp reactions
from many of the characters of the epic itself. However, it is said that this
was a practice in some tribal areas of the Himalayan range, which too had given
up the practice around the same time. Yudhishtir is supposed to have referred
to the clan of Northern-Kurus who followed the practice of polyandry, where
they had grown up as children before they came to Hastinapur.

Well
for good or for bad, for right or for wrong, for duty to ones mother or for
giving vent to ones lust – call it what you will, polyandry was not widely
accepted, and only Draupadi paid a price for it, none else did and the question
remains – Just why did Draupadi have to suffer
polyandry?

Thursday, February 6, 2014

A
typical response to a complicated question, which was the need of the hour
(read ‘plot’ of the epic) as seen by author. But there is an elaborate myth
behind it, which by itself, is the cause of Draupadi giving in to five
husbands, but has deeper meaning.

But
first the myth.

Once
upon a time, there lived a sage Maudgalya, who was married to Nalayani. For
some strange and unexplained reason, the sage decided to test his wife. He
developed a debilitating disease (supposedly leprosy) due to which he remained
diseased and unable to do anything and would get angry for no reason. In all
this, Nalayani took great care of her husband and would bear all his tantrums. Nalayani
would always eat after the sage had partaken his food from the same plate and the
leftovers left by him. Once when the sage was having his food, one of his
fingers fell in the food. True to her habit, she took the finger out of the
food and ate the food as if nothing had happened. The sage was impressed but
was still not done.

One
day, he expressed his desire to have sex with another woman, who sold sex for
gold. Nalayani sold her gold chain and bundled him in a basket and carried him
on her head through the market place, much to the amusement and taunts of the
onlookers. After, he was done, to avoid the comments which might be hurting her
husband, she was hurrying back home. In the hurry, she did not notice a learned
sage hanging from the tree for some crime and brushed her husband against him.
In anger, the sage cursed her that by dawn next day, she would lose her husband
and become a widow.

When
Nalayani reached home, she was angry. She let her husband to rest for the night
and cried out loud for the gods to hear that if she had been chaste and if she
had never failed in her duties towards her husband, and if the sages curse be
true, that she would lose her husband at dawn, then let the power of her
chastity not let the sun to rise. Then she went about with her work.

The
next day at dawn Lord Indra noticed that the Sun was not at the horizon. He
went out in search to find the Sun hiding behind a mountain, trying to curtail
his rays from spreading. On being asked, the Sun said that he did not have the
power to go against the chastity of a woman, and he was restricted by the words
of Nalayani. To cut short the story, the gods approached the sage who was
hanging and got him to withdraw his curse and thus Nalayani’s husband was saved
from death.

Nalayani’s
husband, sage Maudgalya was also impressed and came back to his young self and
asked his wife Nalayani to ask for any boon she desired. Nalayani then asked that
the sage take five different forms and enjoy her. For many years the two
enjoyed sexual pleasures, but Nalayani could just not have enough. A time came
when the sage had had enough and decided to go to the forest. But Nalayani was
not agreeable to the idea of a life without sex and wanted to know, how she
could live without him (or sex). Sage Maudgalya was angry at this insatiable
lust and cursed her, that since she has not had enough, in her next life she
can continue the same with five husbands.

Saying
so, Maudgalya retired to the forest and Nalayani too went to the forest and did
penance to appease Lord Shiva. Lord Shiva appeared to her and asked her to seek
a boon. Nalayani asked for a husband, but in her anxiety, she asked for the
same boon five times and Shiva accepted it every time she said so. Later when
Nalayani realised it, she was worried, that wouldn’t the world see this as odd,
since she had never heard about a woman having more than one husband and that
too all together? Lord Shiva assured her that it is not unheard of, and anyways,
it’s a boon from him so the world would not see this as odd. Later, Nalayani
was born to Drupad and as we all know, Draupadi was married to the five
brothers, the Pandavs.

While
the subject of polyandry is a matter we will delve in, next time, the myth of
Nalayani and Maudgalya seem to have a larger relevance. Besides the fact that
it goes on to become the ‘cause’ of Draupadi’s marriage to the Pandavs in the
form of a justification, it probably also had another larger objective. The
uncomplaining and the dutiful service rendered by a wife to her husband, no
matter how he was and what his demands be, is the case in point here. Such
stories were used to reinforce the sense of service a society expected from a
wife. Her ordeals were eulogized as something that elevated her to a status,
where she could stop the order of nature. Her chastity could stop the Sun from
rising and have gods intervene if need be. If that by itself was not good
enough, then she could end up with a life of abundant sex! The former was the
said advantage and the latter was the unsaid advantage of remaining true to
ones husband and a life of servitude towards him, no matter how he was.

I
guess the patriarchy of its times, had its own ways of controlling their women,
this being one of them – what say you?

The above myth is told by Sage
Vyasya to Drupad and his son Drishtidyumna when they wanted to know as to why Draupadi
had to marry five brothers. This is the background that is used to justify, an
otherwise ‘innocent’ remark by Kunti that the brothers should share what they
got.

About Me

Utkarsh has qualifications in Mythology, both Indian and World from Mumbai University. He is also a faculty on the subject of Comparative Mythology, at the Mumbai University, India. Utkarsh is also a regular trainer and lecturer on varying subjects at private organisations and educational institutions.

Utkarsh has more than 2 decades of experience in Sales and Business Development of IT products and solutions. He has worked with some of the well known IT organisations, some being start-ups, in India. Utkarsh is also a regular trainer and lecturer on varying subjects at private organisations and educational institutions.

Besides his Blog he is also a content provider to a few portals on similar subjects. Some of his short stories have been published in the well known literary story Blog, called LITIZEN. Utkarsh has also written a book on the subject of mythological-fiction, and working on another one, both of which are expected to be published in the next few months.